Dive Brief:
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Two community groups, nearly 100 architects and architecture students in Portland, OR, have designed small shelters to help the city house its homeless population during the winter, according to the Portland Business Journal.
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As part of a city-run design charrette, participants built prototype portable shelters. Each unit’s footprint could be no more than 8 feet by 12 feet and less than 10 feet, 8 inches tall, requiring a window and a door. (See all of the designs here.)
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The charrette intends to inform the eventual design of shelters that the city hopes to place in 30, 30-unit clusters around Portland, although locations have yet to be determined.
Dive Insight:
Portland is in the grips of a major housing shortage and the launch of this initiative by the city of Portland with the Portland State University School of Architecture’s Center for Public Interest Design, the Village Coalition and City Repair explores potential solutions for one element of that equation. It is estimated that 3,800 people in Multnomah County, OR, which includes Portland, in temporary shelters or on the street, according to PSU.
More broadly, home prices in Portland rose 11.7% year-over-year in August, the largest rise of all cities followed for the period, according to the latest 20-city S&P Core Logic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. The high prices are driven in part by tight inventory conditions, with knock-on effects in low-income housing, as the city faces a gap of more than 23,000 affordable units.
This has sparked a rush by city officials to come up with initiatives aimed at filling the void. Last month, voters in Portland approved a $258.4 million bond that will fund construction of 1,300 affordable units.
In July, the Portland City Council approved a 1% construction excise tax set to raise $8 million a year to help fund the city's affordable housing initiatives.
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